Borg Cube
The Borg cube was the primary vessel of the Borg Collective. Encounters The first officially publicized Federation contact with a Borg cube took place in 2365, when the USS Enterprise-D encountered a single cube in System J-25. However, civilian researchers on board the USS Raven had previously tracked a Borg cube a decade earlier in 2353. Every Starfleet encounter with a single cube resulted in heavy losses. Thirty-nine out of forty ships were lost at the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2366, and dozens more in the incursion of 2373. Normally a single Borg cube was capable of eliminating all the elements of civilization from an entire planet. When the USS Enterprise-D experienced malfunctions due to Wesley Crusher's nanites in 2366, sensors erroneously detected an approaching (nonexistent) cube. Thousands of cubes were estimated to exist in Borg space in the Delta Quadrant; the largest grouping of cubes directly observed by Starfleet was fifteen, by the crew of the USS Voyager in late 2373. When describing the assimilation of his world, Arturis said that hundreds of cubes surrounded his homeworld before its destruction. Seven of Nine stated to Captain Janeway that the nebula concealing the transwarp hub contained at least 47 Borg vessels. Technical Data Design The Borg cubes encountered at System J-25 and Wolf 359 were extremely large in size, measuring 28 cubic kilometers in volume, with each side measuring more than three kilometers. In 2366, Commander Shelby estimated that a Cube could remain operative even if 78% was inoperable. Propulsion Systems Borg cubes were capable of both warp and transwarp velocities, in part, thanks to their network of transwarp corridors and hubs. When a Borg cube enters a transwarp conduit it projects a structural integrity field ahead of the Cube to compensate for the extreme gravimetric shear. To compensate for the extreme temporal stress while traveling through these corridors, and remain in temporal sync, a chroniton field was also projected through specially designed conduits. Tactical Systems The main tactic employed by cubes when engaging another vessel was to seize it with a tractor beam and render its defenses useless by draining its shields. Thus, the cube could perform any type of action, ranging from destruction to assimilation, on the defenseless ship. Following the failure of enemy shields, the cube usually engaged a high-energy laser cutting beam to slice sections of the ship for assimilation. In a combat situation the Borg sometimes further used the tractor beam itself to destroy the target vessel. The cutting beam could also be used as a weapon to destroy vessels showing resistance. During the Battle of Wolf 359, the Excelsior Class USS Melbourne and the Miranda Class USS Saratoga were annihilated by cutting beams, after their shields had been drained by the tractor beam. Another tactic used to disable vessels fleeing a cube was to fire a type of missile weapon. Three missiles were capable of disabling a Galaxy Class's shields. A hit from the weapon at an unshielded target could disable its warp drive. The cubes could also use dispersal fields to disrupt the sensor and transporter function of enemy vessels. In addition, a Borg cube's weaponry also included other destructive beam and projectile weapons. During the 2366-2367 incursion, a cube obliterated three ships of the Mars Defense Perimeter with projectiles. Similar projectiles were used to destroy a Steamrunner Class and a Saber Class starship during the Battle of Sector 001. The concentrated fire of three beam weapons was able to reduce USS Voyager's ablative generator-deployed armor hull integrity, a highly advanced future Starfleet defense technology, to 40%. Interior Design Borg cubes were typically manned by "thousands of drones," and could vary in capacity anywhere from 5,000 to 64,000 to 129,000 drones. Borg cubes were highly decentralized in structure with no specific bridge, living quarters or engineering sections. All vital systems were spread throughout the ship, which, along with the presence of a regenerative hull, made it highly resistant to damage and system failures. Information and Collective communication were routed through power waveguide conduits and distribution nodes. Its exterior design consisted of perpendicular and diagonal grids, struts, and weaponry, allowing a characteristic green light to emanate from within. Some vessels are equipped with maturation chambers. The internal pressure aboard a Borg cube was two kilopascals above what would be normal on a Federation starship. The humidity was on average 92%, and the temperature was at 39.1 °C. The atmosphere contained traces of tetryon particles. The infrastructure was made of tritanium, an alloy known for its extreme hardness. Category:Borg Classes